NF Throwback: Simone – Heart Shaped Hole

With NF season now upon us, we decided to kickstart our throwback series once again to look at some of the songs which didn’t quite make it to Eurovision. Some of these songs are fabulous, some, not so, but we’ll chat about that along the way!

This week we’re taking a look at the Danish national final of 2016, and more specifically the song of Simone, which as many Eurovision fanatics would know, is called Heart Shaped Hole.

For me, the national final season of 2016 in general didn’t offer as many stand out songs, however this song was one of the only to really make an impact on me as a listener. The song is a standard pop song, however with an extremely catchy melody which shows off the vocal ranges of Simone. The song brings drama which begins in the introduction of the song, and builds up to a song that you don’t want to stop listening to.

The transition from verse to chorus in that one note is enchanting, and her higher notes are contrasted with the lower notes in the verses, and as a result it creates a dynamic song, although its structure remains pretty average to the genre of pop. The backing grows after the first verse and pre-chorus, and is quite heavy on the drums, however we think this compliments the tone of the song. Again, it contrasts to her voice, which we are describing as sweet with an edge.

Even in the studio version of this performance, we can feel the emotion of this song, and although it is a pop song by definition, it has a darkness brought out by her voice specifically. As a live performance, watching the staging, there was a focus on more the flowery girlness that Simone oozes, whereas I think the staging could have potentially been more edgy.

Overall I think this would have qualified to the final of Eurovision if this had in fact won the national final, which I think it should have. I did like Lighthouse X more than the average Eurovision Joe, but saying that, I think Denmark needs to lay off the boybands for a little while. I think Simone would have offered a mid-tempo pop song that would stand out of the crowd more than what Soldiers of Love did in the semi-final.

I’m giving this song a 9/10. A definite stand out in the 2016 NF season for me.